Sangeeta Bijlani

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Sangeeta Bijlani was born in Bombay to Sindhi speaking parents. She rose to fame in the year 1980 when she was crowned the Prestigious Miss India Pageant succeeding actress Swaroop Sampat, which made her an overnight sensation in the media. She then went on to win the National Costume Award at Miss Universe Pageant the same year incidentally lead to many film offers coming her way which led to her film debut in 1988.

Sangeeta Bijlani was married to legendary Indian cricketer after a longstanding and much talked about relationship which began in 1996, the couple finally parted ways in the 2010. Bijlani’s officially converted Islam name during her married life was Ayesha Azar. Bijlani in the past has been romantically linked to many directors and actors in the media; her relationship with actor Salman Khan fired up many rumours which they brought to an end later on after their break up. Sangeeta Bijlani was recently in the news related to the release of her husband’s biopic film “Azhar “ in the May 2016 , which had Emraan Hashmi reprising his role and Nargis Fakhri donning the reel life version of Sangeeta Bijlani on screen.

Film debut and rise to prominence ( 1988-1991) Sangeeta Bijlani made her Bollywood debut with Ashok Gaikwad’s crime thriller flick Qatil, which had her pairing opposite Aditya Pancholi in the lead with actors like Shakti Kapoor. The movie which narrated the plights of a law student who sets out to prove capital punishment wrong by committing a murder had her in a pivotal part that got her well noted among the Bollywood film circle with the movie being rated well among critics. She swept away her part with a seemingly inherent charm and her good looks led her next supporting outing through J.P Dutta’s action film Hathyar starring Dharmendra and Sanjay Dutt in the lead which also opened to favourable word of mouth. She then played a girl who sets out to avenge her brother’s death in Rajiv Rai’s ensemble action thriller film Tridev starring Naseeruddin Shah, Sunny Deol and Jackie Shroff saw her emoting to great lengths unlike her previous outings. Her famous song number “ Oaye Oaye” is still remembered as one of her most popular moments from Bollywood till date. The blockbuster ensemble thriller was the biggest hit of her career and is undoubdetly. She was seen coming up with a stellar act along with the other two heroines Madhuri Dixit and Sonam. The movie Tridev is still quoted to be her finest work till date. Career best phase with array of major releases (1990-1991) The year 1990 proved to be the high point of Bijlani’s career with her going on to be a part of many mainstream Bollywood potboilers and critical hits. She started off by being a part of the ensemble political drama Jai Shiv Shankar which had Rajesh Khanna, Jeetendra and more in the forefront. Bijlani then went on to play lead heroine opposite Mithun Chakraborty in his super hit action film Gunahon Ka Devta. She then went on to pair with Jeetendra in the fantasy flick Hatim Tai which had her playing an angel, which too got noted for its weightage in the plot. She was then called upon in movies like Mahesh Bhatt’s blockbuster crime drama film Jurm, Mithun Chakraborty’s family thriller Paap Ki Kamaee in the year 1990. The year 1991 started off for her by going on to pair with Sanjay Dutt in Yodha. She also appeared as the lead lady in Mithun Chakraborty’s vigilante drama flick Numbri Aadmi and donned the “clichéd Bollywood name sake heroine” parts in commercial entertainers like Inspector Dhanush, Vishnu Devaa and Khoon Ka Karz, all of which had moderate to successful results critically and commercially. Other last releases ( 1991-1997) Bijlani had a low key year in 1991 with forgettable outings like Gunehgar Kaun, Izzat and Shiv Ram all of which did nothing in particular to her career prospects. She then tried her luck at Telugu cinema with the remake of the Hindi classic Don through Yugandar which saw he sharing screen with N T Rama Rao, Jayasudha and others in a supporting role. Sangeeta Bijlani’s final set of movies were Lakshmanrekha, Tahqiqaat, Game,Nirbhay and Jagannath in the latter half of the 90’s, the failure of which led to her discontinuing film acting in the year 1997.